The exposed bay of Palma, fifteen miles across, has the little harbour of Porto Pi on the west side, and the city of Mallorca, afterwards called Palma, in its centre. In Moorish times the city was an important commercial port, with a great fleet of piratical galleys. It had a strong wall and ditch, and eight gates. The bed of a mountain torrent formed the moat on the west side. On the sea-face there were three gates: one leading to the mole, called ‘the Gate of Chains’; another to the west, called _Balbelet_, leading from the _Dar-as-Sanâá_ or arsenal, corrupted by the Catalans into ‘_Atarazana_.’ In the east of the sea-wall was the _Hicolbelet_. On the right of the Gate of Chains, within the walls, stood the Moorish palace, which appears to have been a small town in itself, called _El Medînah_, and by the Spaniards to this day _Almudaina_. On the east side there was a gate near the south-east angle, since closed up. Near the north-east angle was the _Belalcofol_, called by the Spaniards ‘_Pintada_.’ On the north side was the _Barbolet_, now the _Puerto de Jesus_. The Moors had two gates on the side of the torrent, facing west, the _Belalbelet_, since closed, and the gate of Porto Pi, now called _Catalina_. Altogether there seem to have been eight gates in the Moorish walls. Besides the _Almudaina_ there was a strong castle near the south-east angle of the town, which was given to the Knights Templars, and near the centre stood the chief mosque. Of other public buildings in Moorish times there is no notice. The city of the Moors, owing to its wealth and importance, must have contained many fine and richly furnished houses; but such an active energetic people as the Catalans very soon replaced them with churches, convents, and houses in their own style, and there is but one vestige left. Walking down a street at the back of the cathedral, called ‘Serra,’ to the sea-face, the shrubs and flowers of a garden show themselves over a high wall. A flight of steps leads to the garden, and in one corner an archway opens on the ruins of a Moorish bath, though nothing is left but the bare brickwork. There is a dome supported by twelve pillars, with capitals apparently from the ruins of a Roman temple, the pillars about eight feet high, and the conventional leaf capitals not exactly fitting them. Round the dome there is a vaulted passage, with recesses for piping. This is all that remains to bear witness of the Moorish palaces and houses, with their wealth of arabesque work and bright colouring, their marble pillars and pavements, their cool gardens and fountains and luxurious baths. All is now a dream of the long-buried past. CHAPTER III Tells how En Jayme besieged and took the capital, conquered the whole island, and became the first Christian King of Majorca